Chapter Eight

Falling into Place

Bring me all the pieces of the puzzle…

That's what Walcott had told Nigel and Seely to do if Jordan and Woody were to ever avoid a trial and serious jail time. They had found one piece and it was enough to delay the trial, but it wasn't enough to exonerate their friends.

Unfortunately, it was all they had. Nigel had taken that piece of evidence and twisted it everyway he could, hoping to wring another drop of something…anything… that would lead them to another piece of evidence and hopefully start a chain reaction that would free Jordan and Woody.

Every spare moment in the passing weeks found both men locked away in Nigel's office, pouring over the details of the case, re-running tests, looking at the case from different angles. Then carefully hiding the evidence boxes from Lu's prying eyes.

"Gordon…It still all revolves around Gordon…" Seely mused late one night when he and Nigel were once again re-hashing the evidence.

"JD was fixated on him, and from the oceans of notes that Woody and Jordan made, the fixation was valid," Nigel replied, his eyes still glued to his computer screen.

"But what do we know? We suspect he'd taken bribes. We know he let guilty men go free because of 'lack of evidence.' My question is, where'd the evidence go? And who was paying off the judge to lose the evidence?"

Nigel nodded. Those were the questions that JD wanted answered. And the man had gotten close enough to answers that it cost him his life. Nigel had no doubt that Woody and Jordan had gotten even closer and if Lu hadn't of turned into a one-woman female bounty hunter operation, they would have found those answers and returned to Boston free and clear, and with the case solved.

Unfortunately, Simmons had played her hand. And this time she did have the law on her side. Woody and Jordan were fugitives. Not that Nigel didn't doubt for a moment that jealousy may have driven the female detective's pursuit for justice. And that pursuit interrupted Woody and Jordan just at the moment they were within a hair's breadth of solving the case. Just like an unlucky penny, Lu showed up at the worst moment.

Just like now.

"Good evening, gentlemen," the cool blonde said from the doorway of Nigel's office. "You two certainly look busy." She pulled herself off the door jamb she was leaning on and strolled into the lab like she owned it. "So tell me…why are my evidence boxes in here instead of the evidence locker and just what the hell do you think you're doing?"


Minimum security prisons still meant orange jumpsuits and still meant being in a cell. Only this time, both Woody and Jordan were in solitary confinement, due to their respective jobs. Both worked in law enforcement. The general population of any prison, even a minimum security prison, didn't take kindly to law enforcement officials living behind bars. So to avoid any further bad publicity from an already too-well publicized case, the prison officials had ordered both Woody and Jordan into solitary confinement – for their own safety.

Both had a grainy television set, a few books, paper and pen, and lots of time on their hands to keep them company. And of the two, Jordan worried about Woody the most. He shouldn't have put his career on the line for her. He should have stayed in Boston. She should have sent him back home the minute he showed up at her cheap hotel room. She should have, she should have, she should have… the thoughts ringed her mind and her narrow jail cell condemning her well before she would ever be pronounced guilty by some ill-informed jury that had only heard half the evidence.

Between that and the horribly acted soap operas that overran daytime television, Jordan knew her sanity would be in question before her case ever went to trial.

Woody had told her he'd be fine. Just take care of herself. That Garret, Bug, and Nigel would be working hard to find the rest of the evidence to exonerate them. She had clung to those words, just like she had let her lips cling to his during that last brief, sweet kiss. But Jordan was better equipped to handle solitary confinement than Woody was. She had lived a good chunk of her life alone, not allowing but a few well-chosen individuals into her inner circle.

Woody hadn't. His life was like an open book and like an eager cocker spaniel, the more friends the better. Jordan worried what solitary confinement was doing to him.

And if he resented her yet.

She glanced at the one picture taped to the wall of her cell…the only one she had been allowed to bring in. It was one of him and her at Lily's last Christmas party. Eyes and faces glowing from the excitement of the season and maybe just one too many glasses of wine.

Back when their futures together still held so much promise, even if they didn't realize it. And technically, Woody could still have a future. Jordan sighed and knew what she had to do. She had to do everything she could to minimize the impact on Woody and his career. She would have to shift the blame for everything totally on her and allow her attorney to work with his to maximize the damage control for him. Even though Jordan was innocent of everything except running from Boston when she shouldn't have.

After everything Woody had done for her, it was the least she could do for him. That's what people do when they're in love….God, I miss you Woody. Hang in there…one way or the other it will all be over soon…

Jordan dug her attorney's phone number out of the pocket of her orange jumpsuit and called for the guard. "I need to make a phone call…"


It was gone. Like in the blink of an eye and the beat of a heart, Lu had swept in the lab, ordered a uniform to secure the boxes of evidence, and had them sent back to the evidence locker.

"But Walcott said," Seely protested.

"If she did, I never heard about it," Lu replied smoothly. "And it's my case. Protocol says I at least should have been notified and present when the evidence was reviewed."

"Go ask her yourself, Simmons."

"I will first thing Monday morning. Until then," she closed the lid to the last box and resealed it, "you two are not to go near that locker. Do you hear me? If you do, I'll tell the chief. I'll call Walcott Monday and see when she and I can meet about you 'going back over the evidence'."

"But that could take days," Seely continued to protest.

"I know. Protocol can be a bitch, can't it? Have a nice weekend," was her parting barb as she followed the last uniformed officer out of the lab and to the elevators.

Matt sighed in defeat. It looked as if he and Nigel might both be spooning Woody in a jail cell before this was over. Balefully he wondered if he could some how still finagle a job at his dad's publishing company and salvage some sort of future for himself. Then he realized that Nigel had been silent during the entire exchange between him and Lu. "What's the matter with you?" he spat out angrily at the Brit. "Lu comes in like a banshee, leaves with everything we've got, and you don't open your freakin' mouth one time. Not once. What gives?"

Nigel remained silent in front of his computer screen for another moment. "She didn't leave with everything we have, mate."

"She didn't?" Matt ran his hand down the back of his head, resting it on his neck for a moment. "It sure looks like she did."

"Nah. The computer files? The encrypted computer files that JD had on a flash drive that he made sure Jordan got?"

Matt nodded.

"I transferred them to my hard drive weeks ago."

"So? We've gone over them time and time again…there's nothing there that we didn't already know."

Nigel shook his head. "No. There was something wonky about them. So I sent copies of them to a friend of mine at MIT. I just got his results back." Nigel's lips turned up into a Cheshire cat-like grin.

"Care to share?"

"There's an encryption behind the encryption." Nigel turned his laptop around for Matt to see.

"Well I'll be damned…"